Q: How do I brew a perfect pot?

A: The perfect pot is different for everyone.  How your tea is prepared and enjoyed is a very personal thing.  Follow the brewing instructions on the package and keep the following in mind:

1)      Water quality.  If your tap water tastes good, so will your tea.  If you have poor tap water we recommend using bottled or filtered water.

2)      Water temperature.  Different types of teas are brewed at different temperatures.  Boiling for black and herbal teas, 160 degrees for greens, oolongs vary according to their oxidations.  Your package should have brewing temperatures on it.  If you are unsure, email us and we’d be happy to assist.

3)      Leaf amount.  The general rule of thumb is 2 grams (1 tsp) per 250ml (1 cup).  We recommend using a tea scoop.  White teas require more leaf than others, 3 grams (1.5 tsp) per 250ml (1 cup).  This is a guideline, we encourage you to experiment and find the quantity that suits your individual taste.

4)      Steep time.  Different types of teas steep for varied amounts of time.  General rule of thumb is: Green tea – 2 min.; Black Tea – 4 min; White Tea – 5 min.; Oolong 3 to 5 min depending on the type.

5)      Brewing vessel:  Again, it depends on your individual taste.  It’s important while the tea leafs are steeping to allow them to completely unfold.  A large infuser basket or simply leaving them loose in the pot is best for this.  The vessel that you use to heat/boil your water should not be used as a brewing vessel.

Q:  I have a kettle that only boils water, how do I tell what temperature it is?

A:  A good way to guess at the water temperature without a thermometer is to bring the water to a boil (remove from heat), and wait about 30 seconds (for white tea) or 60 seconds (for green tea) before pouring over the leaves.

Q:  How is loose leaf tea graded?

A:  Below is a quick reference to tea grading:

Whole Leaf

S - Souchong (Usually the fourth leaf of the shoot which means it comes from coarse plucking and is therefore, lower quality)

FOP – Flowery Orange Pekoe (It’s often thought that Orange Pekoe is a type of tea, but it’s really just a size. Flowery refers to its shape resembling a crushed flower because it is loosely rolled)

OP – Orange Pekoe (Generally regarded as a good quality tea that is rolled up slightly tighter than FOP)

Broken Leaf

P – Pekoe (A large broken leaf grade that usually does not contain any visible tips)

BOP – Broken Orange Pekoe (Broken into pieces that are typically square shaped)

Fannings and Dust

F – Fannings (The size usually found in tea bags. The name comes from an old practice of using fans to separate the smallest pieces from the larger)

D – Dust (The finest of all grades, almost powder-like)

Additional Modifiers:

T – Tippy (A modifier used in whole and broken leaf grades to indicate that the that there are buds present)

G – Golden (Describing the coloring of the tips or buds and is considered favorable)

When grading whole leaf teas, they usually start at the lowest grade, PS (Pekoe Souchong) to FOP which is a higher quality. Then, they will add the modifiers such as GFOP (Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe) which is even better.

After that, even more modifiers are added such as, FTGFOP (Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe) and even SFTGFOP (Special Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe).

 A good resource for futher FAQs regarding tea:

http://pages.ripco.net/~c4ha2na9/tea/faq.html